Surrey students decorate hundreds of liquor store bags to raise awareness of impaired driving this holiday season

Surrey Board of Education Vice-Chair Gary Tymoschuk (second from the right) with reps from ICBC and the Surrey Police Service at the Surrey kick-off for the Think of Me campaign.

Customers at BC Liquor Stores are getting personalized reminders to stay safe this holiday season, thanks to paper bags hand decorated by Surrey and White Rock students.

The initiative is part of ICBC and the BC Liquor Distribution Branch’s annual Think of Me campaign, created to remind customers about drinking responsibly and how others may be affected by drunk driving.

With 12 local schools participating in the campaign this year, a mix of elementary and secondary students decorated 845 bags with messages and images promoting thoughtfulness and safety when drinking alcohol over the holidays. 

“Surrey Schools is proud to partner with ICBC and the BC Liquor Distribution Branch on this initiative,” said Gary Tymoschuk, vice-chair of the Surrey Board of Education. “These hand-decorated bags are a poignant reminder that drinking and driving doesn’t just affect the driver but can have devastating consequences and potentially impact others, including our children.”

For Salish Secondary arts teacher Sofia Trujillo, the initiative was a way for her Grade 8 students to not only express their creative side, but also a learning opportunity to discuss the seriousness of driving drunk and the consequences that may come of it.

“It’s a really good campaign and it helped to get the kids thinking about these sorts of situations at an early age,” said Trujillo. “It also allows the kids to take that discussion home if it’s something they wanted to learn more about with their parents.

Trujillo said students came up with designs that emphasized what caring and thinking of others meant to them.

“We wanted to the messaging to be positive, and I encouraged them to approach it as if they were designing a bag for someone in their family, so we had a lot of really creative messages and designs come from that,” she said.

Some examples of the designs include pets waiting for their owners at home by the window, a group of children crossing the street and a blurry nightscape emphasizing not to drive if you can’t see straight.

The bags will be distributed starting today (Dec. 20) and will be appearing in BC Liquor Stores throughout Surrey.